BOSTON -- Cosmic forces move slowly and strike quickly. That is about the only explanation for what happened at Fenway Park on Sunday night. The speed is eight stops on the MBTA's Green Line in five months. The quickness fast enough to make your head spin.

It was on May 13 that the Boston Bruins trailed the Toronto Maple Leafs by three goals in the third period of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals a few floors above North Station, and then came storming back with two goals in the final 1:22 of regulation before winning in overtime.

David Ortiz: His grand slam breathed life into the Red Sox. (AP Photo)

Sunday night was Oct. 13, a few blocks from Kenmore Station, and the Boston Red Sox were trailing the Detroit Tigers by four runs with two outs in the eighth inning of Game 2 of the American League Championship Series. David Ortiz's grand slam in the eighth inning tied the game, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia's single in the ninth inning tied the series.

Boston's 6-5 victory, after trailing by five runs in the sixth inning, was about the only way that the Red Sox could top the comeback exploits of Tom Brady leading the New England Patriots to a last-minute victory over the New Orleans Saints on Sunday afternoon. That was just a regular season game in Foxborough, but the Red Sox knew about it when they took the field half an hour later.

"I know enough guys saw it, with guys on their fantasy football teams and stuff, had some guys out there," Red Sox outfielder Daniel Nava told Sporting News. "Maybe some of the guys didn't see, but I know I saw it. Maybe we were just building off that. ... I can totally see why everyone saw it. We're a team that's prided itself on not being out until you get that 27th out. Not to be corny like that, but that's the mentality that you've got to have, and we've got guys that have been around enough to know that's the case."

Ortiz is one of those guys, having been among the stars of the Red Sox's comeback from a 3-0 series deficit against the New York Yankees in the 2004 ALCS, the only team in baseball history to pull off that feat. The Red Sox could have been staring at the same deficit in this series, given that Justin Verlander is pitching in Game 3 and the Red Sox were doing nothing at the plate.

Instead, the Red Sox head west brimming with confidence.

"Tuesday against Verlander I'm pretty sure you're going to see guys having better at-bats," Ortiz said. "I think that, like I say, they have outstanding pitching and we are the kind of team that we try to take advantage of mistakes. And the past couple of days, I mean, see, the whole regular season you haven't seen a team shutting us down for 14, 15 straight innings like they have the past couple of days."

The Red Sox feel alive. Boston feels alive. When Ortiz hit the first pitch that Joaquin Benoit threw into the home bullpen at Fenway Park, the 101-year-old building shook a bit, at least in the upper levels.

"The numbers came up that he had never hit a home run off Benoit, and the first pitch, he hits a home run," said Clay Buchholz, who was on track to be the losing pitcher until that moment. "That was unbelievable, just sitting in here, sort of speechless at the time. That's why this team's where we're at right now, because nobody ever gives up, and everybody believes the next guy can do it."

Down in the batting cage, where he was warming up for a pinch-hitting appearance that wound up being unnecessary, Nava only caught a glimpse of what was happening on television, and he didn't think that Ortiz's ball was going over the fence until it sailed past Torii Hunter's glove.

"I'm sure the place just erupted, and you could probably hear it for blocks," Nava said. "That's got to be pretty fun to hear something like that, be walking down the street and wonder what was going on, right?"

When it's Boston and the playoffs, there doesn't seem to be much to wonder about anymore. The city that once was home to The Impossible Dream of the 1967 Red Sox now plays host to the impossible on a semi-regular basis.

The Bruins had their miracle comeback, and it launched them on a path to a conference title. The Red Sox had theirs, and the series is now a best-of-five from this point forward, with three games in Detroit. It's just that the scope of what happened on Sunday is bigger than the big picture, at least until everyone can regroup.

"I mean, I'm not happy at this point, but I'm sure tomorrow I'll be a little bit happier about" splitting the games in Boston, said Tigers catcher Alex Avila, whose two-run homer in the sixth inning had given Detroit a 5-0 lead. "We had a chance to go up 2-0, but it's part of baseball. To be honest with you, it doesn't really matter. We got the split. We had a chance to go up 2-0, and we didn't. It's that simple."